Thoughts about a little of everything…

The Ongoing Editing Process…

If I’m self-publishing, I’m in charge of the entire process, right? So, if I misspelled things the first time around, or if I used a word in verb form rather than adjective form, or just completely wrote a sentence that doesn’t make sense, I need to make sure that it’s caught before its published. That’s not the fun part of writing…

So now I’m working on finding the right editor and proofreader to hire to work on those aspects. Then I need to find the right cover artist to make the book grab your attention as soon as you see it. Etcetera, etc., etc.

But actually, if I’m starting from the beginning of my novel, the biggest thing I need to fix is the title. Because…I don’t have one. I have a title for my second novel, a title for another novel I’ve been dabbling with, and a pretty good idea of the title for the next four novels I’d write after that, and even the next one (can you tell that writer’s block isn’t going to be the issue with my career?). But…for the first novel I’m looking to put out into the world, the first page of the manuscript simply states “TITLE” at this point. Then, it’s saved on my laptop as “The Great American Novel”, but isn’t that the working title of every American writer’s first novel? So I’ve got work to do there. I mean, I have an idea of who I’m going to work with at this point to,have it published, but I can’t pick up the phone to talk about it when I can’t answer the question “So what’s the book called?”.

I was going through an email my dad sent me after being one of the first readers when I went home for a long 4th of July weekend years ago. I’m glad he caught a number of the typos and mistakes, and definitely appreciate the notes about the sections that he really liked. But no suggestions about a title. I guess I’m needing to figure that out on my own.

So one book is going to be self-published while the other is being sent out to agents across the country. I just hope I don’t end up having one of them as the ‘favorite child’. People say that an author’s first novel is the most personal one. But for me, it didn’t work out that way and it’s the second one instead. But I need to treat them equally. Even if one will be getting more attention for a while as I work through all of the publishing issues.

Like the problem of the dedication page. After all, promises were made…